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Board of Aldermen 2-12-2020 Page 20

Alderman Lopez

Can | ask what the repercussions of that would even by though, hypothetically if he didn’t or if he stopped
coming?

Attorney Bolton

| guess you could defund his position.

Director Cummings

Thank you members and again Tim Cummings, Director of Economic Development. | would be happy to
come before this body whenever you would like, whether it is one month or two week interval or make it a
standing agenda item for every time there is a Board of Aldermen meeting, to give you status updates.
Thank you.

President Wilshire

Thank you Director Cummings.

Alderman Lopez

May | clarify that | don’t plan on legislating you?
President Wilshire

Thank you Alderman Lopez.

Alderwoman Kelly

Thank you, Alderman Lopez actually brought up what | was going to talk about that | think that there has
been a discussion around, it’s been two years and now we are getting some of the information. | think that it
is critical that we have more information going forward. | don’t think we need to legislate it. | actually think
what | heard — weekly or monthly — more updates. So | think we can work with Mr. Cummings or Director
Cummings to come up with something that’s appropriate . But | think we definitely need to have more
information at more regular intervals.

President Wilshire
| agree, we will work to make that happen.
Alderman Klee

| just want to address something that was stated earlier about the face to face conversations that had
occurred back in 2018. Some of that was probably not explained well enough, was more when in essence
when they had done the Feasibility Study and they were talking to people to find out what it was that they
would like about the project and what they wouldn’t like about the project. They were having those
preliminary discussions with leaders from — they chose a group of people that they felt would be able to, not
necessarily would or wouldn’t donate, but to speak to them about what they felt about the project.

| know there was some negative comments that had been reported on the Full Circle Report but there were
a lot of positive comments too. We truly did | think the Steering Committee focused sometimes on the
negative comments because that’s what helps you grow. If everybody agrees with you, you don’t move,
you don’t change.

Board of Aldermen 2-12-2020 Page 21

So | think that we looked towards some of those negative comments as how can we assure the community
that this is going to happen, how can we do this? So | think that it was good to get negative comments
because it makes you, you know, cross you T’s and dot your I’s a little bit better. So | think some of that
was part of the face to face conversations that were happening. It wasn’t necessarily asking for specific
amounts. | believe that some of the questions might have been, would you donate, who would donate, so
on and so forth. So | think that’s where that came from.

Alderwoman Kelly

Just to add to that quickly, | don’t know how many people here have been on a Capital Campaign, this has
been new for me. But! think potentially the other thing that they were talking about it is a longer
relationship kind of thing when you are asking for $1 million dollars. You don’t sit someone down once and
they go, here you go. It’s sit down, you have coffee, you talk about it, you follow up, have maybe another
conversation. So especially in that beginning phase where you are going for the big dollars, it takes a bit of
time to get those conversations going. So the Committee definitely was starting them and were able to
really talk to those people in earnest.

President Wilshire
Just to clarify the deadline for this was February 20", so it’s not tomorrow it is actually a week out.
Alderwoman Lu

| just want to clarify that | was referring to a conference call with the fundraising committee that was
reported in October of 18 in which they were currently actively soliciting funds. So | was just pointing out
that it sounded like that Committee didn’t begin until September 2019.

Alderman Clemons

Yes they were soliciting funds but they didn’t have a vehicle to accept them and | don’t believe that they
had a vehicle to accept them until well after, | think it was right around the time when Alderman McCarthy
might have passed away. | think it was a receivership from the Arts Nashua | think and | think even then,
you know, so obviously you have conversations with people in the community about who you think might
support something or whatever. | don’t think that a comment from 2018 about we are talking to people
should necessarily disqualify us from saying, well they were talking about it in 2018 so we shouldn’t extend
the deadline. Because even if they had that conversation there was no way to collect that money from that
person. And so, | don’t’ Know. | just am going to leave it at that.

Alderman Jette

So | am going to support the amendment to make it August 31, 2021 because obviously we have to change
it. But you know that was based upon stuff that we were told. Director Cummings told us he wanted to
start this project in the fall. That if we didn’t start in the fall, the prices were going to go up and costs will.
He was hoping that in order to start we needed $4 million dollars and was hoping to get the New Market
Tax Credits to do that. So my timing, my date was just going along with his desire to get this thing moving
and again, we are going to — if we don’t get those New Market Tax Credits, we are going to have to figure
out where the money is going to have to come from. And you know, | hear people talk about the $2.5
million; we never voted $2.5 million, the people never voted $2.5 million. That was something that the
fundraising professionals verified as a reasonable goal for this community, the businesses and the
residents of this community is a reasonable goal for them to come up with.

| just got a copy of the newsletter from the Nashua Soup Kitchen. And they are renovating the old Sacred
Heart School on Spring Street into shelter housing. And they, a year ago, their newsletter said, they
identified or they set a goal of raising | think it is $4.5 million. They are happy, their newsletter says, “we
are happy to announce we raised $3.7 million” in a year.

Board of Aldermen 2-12-2020 Page 22

So | don’t know if that is a reflection on how much support this project has in the community that we are
having trouble coming up with $1.75. Hopefully not but | think we have to identify pretty soon where this
money is going to come from. Hopefully we get the New Market Tax Credits and that takes care of it. But if
we don’t, as soon as that announcement comes out, hopefully it is favorable, but if it is not favorable, | think
we are going to have to have some discussion, not wait 18 months, force a discussion about how are we
going to continue this project or should we look at something that is going to cost less money. If we do
continue this project, where is the money going to come from. But | will vote for this.

Alderman Lopez

So just for context, | know Alderwoman Kelly is just going to hit the same area, but the concern that we had
with the Feasibility Study that they identified how much money could be easily raised. And | remember
bringing up at the time, like yeah you have $2.5 million dollars available in the community to be raised, | say
available, or sitting around. You have the most non-profit dense City in the Northeast and they are all going
to be competing for that. And we saw the Soup Kitchen project on the horizon, | mentioned that, |
mentioned Harbor Homes Older Point Project, the YMCA; there a whole bunch of other capital building
projects. They are all fighting over the same fundraising source, plus we just had an election. Well we just
had the municipal elections and we are in the middle of a primary season.

So there’s a lot of competition for that same general amount of money. So that alone was a concern that |
brought up previously that just because there is that much potential raised, that doesn’t mean it is all going
to go to our project. That relies heavily on relationships as Alderman Kelly and Alderman Klee have
mentioned be cultivated which is why when we were originally discussing this, | was under the impression
that we would be using a non-profit like intermediary, whether it was Great American Downtown or City Arts
Nashua or somebody who had existing relationships and reputation in the community and we really didn’t
do that. Like we waited a whole year, Great American Downtown created their own fundraiser like they had
a pop up art gallery and then they didn’t’ know where to spend the money.

So | think the public has been chomping at the bit to do this and if anything we have been squandering,
that’s where my concern is coming from. We had a lot from Stella Blue that the owner said they would
open a whole new day, they were hiring more people and they sold their business to a new partners. We
had a lot of support from Dave Manganello with Riverside Barbeque, and Riverside is closed. Riverwalk
was looked at as the example of all the live performances and they switched over to like, | like talk behind a
desk for four minutes, | guess. | don’t even know what to call it. But it is definitely not the same music
venue that we were talking about. So there is a lot of passion in the community when we were first doing
this and that’s where a lot of the confidence that we could fundraise and built and | don’t know that that
really panned out because of the way we did it; hiring a consultant, building Committees, and all the
political process took time. And they had to develop their relationships and figure out what they were going
to do. | also would want to point out that the Soup Kitchen’s fundraising mechanism also includes grants
and endowments and other pursuits, we have been focusing mostly on donors just dropping money.

So they are very different situations in terms of what they have been using as a strategy for bringing
revenue in; it doesn’t reflect on our inability to fundraise with PAC. | think we have just been getting in our
own way, just making it too complicated and not focusing on the passion and energy that originally gave us
the authority to do this. People showing up and voting and increasing voter turnout in order to weigh in on
this on the ballot, that was something that gave us the validity and authority to move forward as a Board.
Several Board Members that are currently here campaigned largely on that platform of we need to be
progressive and we need to be aggressive. So this is what my concern is, is that we are losing that
momentum because we are not focusing on how are we going to actively as a Board be engaged in helping
this thing along and moving it forward. We are being treated as a pariah that is only useful at the every end
of every extended deadline.

Board of Aldermen 2-12-2020 Page 23

So | will support the amendment too, my purpose in debating with Alderman Jette’s was | want to make
sure that are being attentive to this because if we just politically say it is easier for someone else rise or fall,
then we are not helping the people of Nashua who actually this to succeed. And even like getting old, this
could literally rise and fall while we are just still working on this project that we thought we could knock out
of the park in 3 years.

Alderwoman Kelly

Yeah thank you Alderman Lopez did cover some of the things that | was going to say. But it’s not a fair
comparison to the Soup Kitchen. Everything that they have raised so far has been grant money and
because of the project that it is, they do have some of liberty to be kind of ahead of the line and be in the
center. So they are not engaged in a Capital Campaign at this moment, which is different from what we are
doing with our people and our Capital Campaign.

Alderman Schmidt

Thank you, the City voted on an idea. We voted on an idea. And | think that was a terrific idea, it really
mattered to a lot of people. It’s not just downtown, it’s not just business, it’s people coming, it is growing
the City, it is growing downtown living which is beneficial for this City. This started out as an idea, and
because we are Government, we can’t do things like non-profits do. We have to be open to everything. We
have to be sure that everything is done exactly correctly and we started out with an idea and for a year and
a half it took that idea to grow. Now we have the design, we have the people that are getting the money for
us, we have a plan for the future, and | think it is way too early to say throw it all away. 18 months is a
small, small amount of time to give this a chance to finish growing. | really think that we need to pass this.
Thank you.

Alderman Klee

| want to mention also, Alderman Kelly mentioned about not being the same donors and the perfect
example of it is when | went with another member of the Steering Committee to get the Certificate and they
awarded the City up in Concord and | spoke to one of the people that made the decision. And one of the
things that she said to me was we are really excited about your project and | wish we could have given you
more. But we gave the Soup Kitchen and therefore but if we didn’t have that one we would have awarded
Nashua more money, which to me that excited me. The fact that we didn’t get it, it went to a good cause, it
went to the Nashua Soup Kitchen. So when you lose out to something like the Soup Kitchen | can
understand. But | want to make a note of that the donors that donate to the arts are not the same that
donate to programs such as the soup kitchen or some kind of social services. They are completely
different type of donor; there is some crossover, don’t get me wrong. Some people will give to both. Buta
lot of people that give to the arts, they give to the arts because that’s where their passion is. It is not saying
that they don’t have empathy and sympathy, but they tend to give to a particular type of venue. So we are
talking apples and oranges and you know sometimes we are talking apples and steak, just not really talking
about the same animal.

Alderman Clemons

Thank you | would be remiss if | didn’t mention this. So we are at the point here where we are amending
this to go to August 31, 2021. So to speak to that | want to stay two things. One, is that | have heard that
maybe we shouldn’t do this because of the donors, we don’t know about the donors. And | want to just
stress this to the public that Bank of America and Enterprise Bank have both donated between them
$350,000.00 to this. Those two banks are not going to donate to something that isn’t viable. They are just
not going to let their money go to something that is not viable. And it would be a very big disappointment
and it would probably be a very long time from ever, if the City was ever doing something again like this
project that they would ever donate again if we turned our backs on this project at this point.

Board of Aldermen 2-12-2020 Page 24

The other point | want to make is there was some suggestion that maybe this Board should try to dig and
find out who are the donors? So you know there was some discussion that we should somehow like find
out who the donors are or how much has been raised. At a Planning Board Meeting, this was on the news,
there was a Planning Board Meeting up in Bedford, New Hampshire where they went to build a new project
where the Macy’s used to be, they want to put some apartments and things like that. One of our local
business owners was mentioned at the Planning Board meeting as somebody that wanted to definitely put
a restaurant in there and you know, you want to have that. It was Surf, Michael Buckley went on Channel 9
and said, “absolutely | 100% never said | am putting a restaurant up there”. And | doubt that Michael
Buckley would go back to Bedford even if he was planning on doing it because he was outed at a public
meeting for what his private plans were going to be. And | don’t blame the man for being upset at that. So
when we are talking about big donors for a project like this, and the Capital Campaign is saying we want to
keep it in our quiet phase, that’s why. That’s why. So there are big risks to this, we have to have faith that
the Capital Committee is doing what they say they are doing, we have to have faith that our Director of
Economic Development is going to get those New Market Tax Credit, that’s his job, that’s what we pay him
to do.

President Wilshire
No pressure.
Alderman Clemons

If it doesn’t happen then we are going to have to have a discussion. But the bottom line is that we need to
extend this deadline in order to have that discussion. So thank you.

Alderwoman Kelly

| am just going to put one final point on this. | think that Alderman Schmidt really put it nicely. There are
people who were sitting on this Board because we were at that very first meeting and one of them until 1:00
in the morning when it was voted down. And | remember feeling of the room and the people who came to
speak (inaudible) Michael Buckley yes there were people who spoke against it as well but the feeling was
what do we want to do as a City. What do we want people to think about when they think about Nashua.
And | think that pulling the rug out from under we invested and | think it is easy to kind of forget those things
and the energy and what we are looking forward to in looking in these dollars and cents. | think you need
to keep an eye on the big picture while we are still looking at the numbers and the fiscal responsibility and
the things we have to do as Aldermen to make sure this project is on track. So that’s my final thought.

Alderman Lopez

So | want to agree with Alderman Kelly that energy and that passion is what is driving the project. | just also
want to say that we, if this project fails, it's because we let it fail. It is something that | have said before.
And if this project doesn’t meet its guidelines then we need to acknowledge our role in that too. So this
Board is entrusted with oversight and with the responsibility that goes along with the authority that we have
and the opportunity to enable projects like this to move forward. We need to take this very seriously and
need to continually be involved and not look at ourselves as an extraneous factor but rather as a necessary
governance and prompt to get things done. So to Alderman Clemons’ point, | don’t want to interfere and
alienate donors or anything like that. | do think we need to be diligent and | think we need to have further
discussions about how exactly we should be diligent appropriately, but we need to move this project
forward and we don’t want to be waiting for my 8" term, hopefully, for this thing to be built because as
Alderman Klee pointed out earlier this is the center of some of the poorest areas in Nashua. We really
need the economic opportunities and developments. | am thrilled that we are losing in some ways in our
metrics to the Soup Kitchen because | would not want to build this on the bones of people being gentrified
or put aside, their needs not being met .

Board of Aldermen 2-12-2020 Page 25

| am glad we have non-profits and the charities to work with and collaborate and the City does many things
at once. | think this is a huge opportunity and it could be the cornerstone as Director Cummings said, at
some of the previous meetings, it’s at the 50 yard line of downtown. It’s right where the location should be.
But we need to make sure this project actually moves forward.

President Wilshire

So the Motion is to amend. I’ve been pretty liberal about the discussion on the motion to amend. So
seeing no more discussion on that, roll call please.

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd,
Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,
Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws, Alderman Cleaver,
Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire 14

Nay: Alderwoman Lu, 0
MOTION CARRIED

MOTION BY ALDERMAN SCHMIDT FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-20-001 AS AMENDED BY ROLL
CALL

ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Schmidt

And I'd like to speak to that. | would only like to say one thing, | am getting a lot of messages from people
who are saying, please go ahead with this. What they have been glad about lately is all the information that
they are finally getting. | know when the Committee was working they worked within themselves and you
didn’t hear anything and now we are and thank you. That’s it.

Alderman Tencza

Thank you. So | just want to say too to speak to something Alderman Lopez said before about oversight.
All the work that Alderman Laws has been doing and Alderman Klee and Alderman Kelly and Alderwoman
Melizzi-Golja last term, | don’t think that there hasn’t been oversight. There are people who have been
very, very involved in what is going on. So | think communication is the issue because as you know sitting
on Planning & Economic Development last term, Director Cummings did come and he gave us, told us
what was going on with New Market Tax Credit, how the project was going, we knew that anytime we
asked he would give us all the details. So! hope that this is a lesson for all of us that communication going
forward to be better within the Board.

And then | also just want to say, something that was said earlier today about people supporting the bill, who
will benefit the downtown shop owners. You know downtown shop owners are our small business owners,
it's not easy being a small business owner. Those people work hard, just because they own their business
it doesn’t mean they are, you know, it doesn’t mean they are rich. It makes they are making their way and
they enjoy running their own business. You know, so we need to remember that, they do come out in
support of this because it will benefit them. But those small businesses give the downtown a character that
it has. Any time | travel especially down south and it’s one strip mall after another strip mall and to the next
Chick-fil-A and to the next Chili’s. You realize how much or how special it is in our small town and our
downtown. So yeah they do come out but they are also doing us a service by keeping downtown.

Board of Aldermen 2-12-2020 Page 26

Alderman Lopez

| would like to move the question because we all have our Aldermanic remarks to make.

MOTION BY ALDERMAN LOPEZ TO MOVE THE QUESTION
MOTION CARRIED

President Wilshire
The motion is for final passage as amended made by Alderman Schmict.
A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd, 14
Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,
Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws, Alderman Cleaver,
Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire

Nay: Alderwoman Lu 1
MOTION CARRIED
Resolution R-20-001 as amended declared duly adopted.

R-20-004
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
RELATIVE TO THE SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION OF $350,000 OF FY2020
UNANTICIPATED REVENUE FROM DEPARTMENT #152 “FIRE”, ACCOUNTING
CLASSIFICATION #44 “CHARGES FOR SERVICES” INTO DEPARTMENT #152 “FIRE”,
ACCOUNTING CLASSIFICATION #51 “SALARIES & WAGES”
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN JETTE FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-20-004 BY ROLL CALL

A viva voce roll call was taken which resulted as follows:

Yea: Alderman O’Brien, Alderman Klee, Alderwoman Kelly, Alderman Dowd, 15
Alderman Caron, Alderman Clemons, Alderman Lopez, Alderman Tencza,
Alderwoman Lu, Alderman Jette, Alderman Schmidt, Alderman Laws,

Alderman Cleaver, Alderwoman Harriott-Gathright, Alderman Wilshire

Nay: 0
MOTION CARRIED

Resolution R-20-004 declared duly adopted.

Board of Aldermen 2-12-2020 Page 27

R-20-005
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman June M. Caron
Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
APPROVING THE USE OF U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
HOME INVESTMENTPARTNERSHIP PROGRAM FUNDS BY HABITAT FOR HUMANITY FOR 10
PAXTON TERRACE
Given its second reading;

There being no objection President Wilshire suspended the rules to allow for the second reading of
R-20-005.

Resolution R-20-005 was given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERWOMAN HARRIOTT-GATHRIGHT FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-20-005
ON THE QUESTION

Alderman Klee

Yes | would like to comment on this. Mr. Slottery came and gave us the view of the renderings and so on
and the ability of wnen they assess who it will be that one will apply to that they could make adaptions for a
home for someone who was physically unable to go through normal doorways and stairs and so on. For our
Veterans and keeping that in mind, | think it’s a brilliant idea. | think we should support this. | just want it to
be known and it was made very clear this is not a give to someone. They will have a mortgage that they will
have to pay. They will have taxes that they have to pay on.

They are responsible for everything. What Habitat does in essence is help them to build it, help them to
finance it and finance through Habitat Mortgage. So it is not a freebie. They will give sweat equity, they will
work towards this. They have a set of qualifications, that have to prove that they will have the ability to be
able to pay to maintaining and | asked a simple question about what if something catastrophic happens it
can it be adapted. They do a constant maintain and adaption of anything that happens to the Veteran
maybe even the same Veteran as times goes on that something that was unforeseen happens. | think this
is a great project that we should support.

MOTION CARRIED

Board of Aldermen 2-12-2020 Page 28

R-20-007
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman June M. Caron
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
CHANGING THE PURPOSE OF FUNDS FOR A PARKS & RECREATION CAPITAL
IMPROVEMENT PROJECT FROM “CROWN HILL POOL REPAIRS” TO “ROTARY POOL FILTER
REPLACEMENT”
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN CARON FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-20-007

ON THE QUESTION

Alderman Caron

And I'd like to speak to it. Thank you. First of all | apologize | was not there when this was brought up. But
this fund being from Crown Hill Pool was leftover funding and it much needed at Rotary Pool because the
originally filter that was built back in the 70’s failed at the end of the season. So this was a good way of
utilizing those funds for that.

My other suggestion would be that in the future when something like this comes before Budget or Finance,
especially Capital Improvement money; that someone representing that Department or that Division should
be there to answer questions. Because the person who puts the Legislation in does not necessarily know
the backstory of it. | knew it because | was aware of the issue at the Rotary Pool. So | think it’s important
that representation be at these Committee Meetings so that you have a better sense of what is being
expended. Thank you.

President Wilshire

To your point Alderman Caron, | would ask the Chairs of all the Committees, that when you look at your
agenda when it comes out, that you reach out maybe to the person that wants the work done and ask them
to come in to your Committee. Your point is well-taken, thank you Alderman Caron.

Alderman Caron

Thank you.

Alderman O’Brien

| would just like to remind that Park & Rec was there at the meeting.

Alderman Caron

| was told they were not there.

Alderman O’Brien

This was the one in Room 208?

Board of Aldermen 2-12-2020 Page 29
Alderman Caron

No, they were not there. And | wasn’t either.

Alderwoman Kelly

So | get your point on that. | just wanted to thank Parks & Rec for taking such good care of our pools. |
know it is just to upgrade the Rotary Pool filter replacement, but these are really places for our children in
the summer spend a lot of time there and for some of them that is their summer vacation and our city does
a great job of keeping them up.

Alderman Clemons

| think the fact that the pool filter is older than | am is a testament to the fact that it was kept up well and we
got our money’s worth.

MOTION CARRIED
Resolution R-20-007 declared duly adopted.

R-20-009
Endorsers: Mayor Jim Donchess
Alderman-at-Large Michael B. O’Brien, Sr.
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman Richard A. Dowd
Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderman-at-Large David C. Tencza
Alderman Jan Schmidt
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Michael Laws
Alderman Linda Harriott-Gathright
Alderman-at-Large Lori Wilshire
ESTABLISHING AN ELECTRIC AGGREGATION COMMITTEE
Given its second reading;

MOTION BY ALDERMAN CLEAVER FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF R-20-009
ON THE QUESTION

Alderwoman Kelly

Just a quick point to the Personnel Committee this is just to establish the Committee that will then look at
the electric aggregation.

MOTION CARRIED

Resolution R-20-009 declared duly adopted.